Kicking out the homeless and other house-cleaning activities

I just read an article suggesting that South Africa’s homeless will be moved out of the cities and into the townships to keep the streets cleaner during the World Cup. It seems that the inconvenience of having people sleeping on the streets has become too much to bear and instead they should be shipped out to keep SA pretty for the guests. The article quotes a “Johannesburg local government spokesperson” who says that “You have to clean the house before you have guests”. The fact that they didn’t give his name makes me wonder if it’s a real quote, but nonetheless it’s important to consider this idea.

When I was a student at Rhodes we were always amazed at how a similar thing happened during orientation week and graduation weekend. Suddenly the street children and homeless people who we had come to know from the area were whisked away to god knows where for the period when all the families and parents were around. We used to remark on this every year, but never really made an effort to find out where they went.

Now I am intrigued. Where did they all go and more importantly, who took them there? Is this something that happens in many of South Africa’s cities when they are trying to look “presentable”. I’d be interested to hear more feedback from the government on this.

I don’t think it’s acceptable to hide a country’s poverty simple for reasons of posterity or aesthetics. People who are coming here know that we have problems (which is probably why they’ve kitted themselves out with the latest in handbag hooks and fanny pouches) and I doubt they’re going to think, “shew, but South Africa is so clean“, because there are no homeless people around. So what would the justification be?

And what about the people who already live in those settlements where they’re being relocated to? Do they not also deserve some say in the matter given that many of them are already sharing scarce resources just to get through the day? It sounds old-regimish and scary to think that the people most starved of their rights in SA could be kicked to the curb in such a blase and blatant fashion. It is heartless to say the least. This is extremely worrying and I hope that the article was more sensationalist than factual.

- M&G Thought Leader